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The Future of Art in a Digital World (part 1)

Predicting a future for Art is difficult because the meaning of Art itself depends on ones personal definition of it.

These are some of the other things going on right now…
- Our world is facing a climate crisis.
- Our world will use up all of it’s know resources in 150 years.
- Monks are being tortured
- Humans are starved, diseased and die terrible deaths
- Much of the world in at war.
- Digitization has firmly embedded itself in our culture.

First of all, I believe that we should look at Art as 2 separate complex entities. The 1st one will be called Art and the 2nd one will be called Fine Art.

Art is a very large fluid mental body of interconnections which would encompass our thoughts, feelings, and the way we simply behave and are. Nature, science, the miracle of life and being, are all Art in this sense. Art is an attitude that can create change. Art is optimism. It’s the creative spark that causes anyone to do anything. Sometimes I know that our language has limits when sharing complex ideas. This is where Art and Fine Art can come together. Art is one of those words that must stand in and represent far more than it should. Basically, Art stands for everything that is good.

Fine Art is that thing you learn about in Art History. It thrives in urban centers during prosperous economic times. It has many different periods, mediums and styles. It changes slowly over time. We only hear what we’re supposed to. You know…“history is written by the victorious” or something to that effect. Fine Art has generally been controlled by elitists and the wealthy, which may usually, but not necessarily, mean that inequality is/was present. Fine Art is truly a business which must survive amongst all of the others. Fine Art is in our city. It’s not close to the degree of Paris or New York but it is here. And yes, we have extremely wealthy residence and many homeless poor people. Fine Art should actually be much stronger in city if it were directly relational to the alarming range of personal wealth apparent here. I love Fine Art for many reasons but something does seem to be wrong with some of our historical values. Fine Art moves so slowly that an artist is more likely to get popular after they die.

So how do we integrate more Art into Fine Art?

How can we justify taking part in Fine Art?

Digital Fine Art is not a “cultural distraction” like lots of the media we see. It can be difficult, especially for experts, to determine what can be let through the Fine Art gates. It always depends on who is looking at the situation. I definitely believe that Fine Art should open up it’s focus. People are being raised around computers and will not fear them the way that someone might today.

Digital technology will get deeply involed with Art, as it has with culture.
But things we be different…

The wonders of computation will be used in more thoughtful ways. The purpose or direction of technology is reassessed. Science and technology, under the influence of artists, visionaries, and the collective consciousness of humanity, will get maximized to it's full potential. Things will be invented on a daily basis because everybody is experimenting with technology in new creative ways.

Digital Revolution! ???
- It helps us towards utopia or at least saves us from extinction
- Major advancement in areas like; resources, new understanding of environment/universe, new medical, new jobs, new global sharing systems, and new values (w/Art & Fine Art together).

Art and Culture are so intertwined that they often appear to be one. Like Ying-Yang or partners who require each other to function, possibly like the two halves of our brains?

Image displays the Digital influence on Art and Culture.


This is a link to my short Flash animation of the same concept.

(Please note that for the purpose of clarity more [-] values have been put into the Culture entity and [+] ones have gone into the Art entity. This is not to say that all Cultural values are bad and all Art values good. However, I feel that, historically in our world, the Bad Cultural values have generally ruled over the Good ones, and also the fact that humans are truly oblivious to what is really going on.)

I don’t know if Fine Art will ever go away?

Art, as I have defined it, is something eternal. Fine Art is not.

Fine Art will surely change form and nature as culture changes.

This is a link to my very Young Hae-Chang Heavy Industries style short Flash animation which begins to illustrate may thoughts on this subject.


end part 1

Art and Commerce Manifesto by Ryan W. Zacher

There are some key ideas which must be explained in order to better understand our present situation. The “Culture industry” is a term used to describe an economic system which exploits world resources and relies on the masses to buy large quantities of factory produced goods (“Culture Industry”). Most people are unaware that they are part of this massive system. Almost everything around us has been created by the “culture industry”. We are so immersed in it that the system becomes invisible. We must understand that the “culture industry” is the cause of many problems. Some of these problems include; exploitation of people & resources, permanent environmental damage, health issues for generations to come, and possibly even the de-evolution of human beings. Those are each entire papers on their own which I will get to in due time.

Now, this ugly monster called the “culture industry” is responsible for all of the fun material possessions in your life. One should feel a certain amount of guilt knowing that your luxuries are only possible because someone else somewhere has been robbed of their rights. True happiness has absolutely nothing to do with wealth and material possessions. The “culture industry” is tied in directly to mass production (industrial factory), mass media (commercials and movies), and even pop culture (what people like, right or wrong, becomes popular and infused into the culture forever). So when Johanna Drucker says that “art today is distinguished by its embrace of commerce and values of the mass media”, I must interject (Davis 1). Is she suggesting that art must share values with a henchman of the “culture industries”? Surely she must be mistaken. Drucker digs herself a deeper hole by claiming that “this loss of art’s distinction as an alternative to the media spectacle is not just one of artist’s choice but an existential condition for all artists, and therefore something that should be embraced”(Davis 1). I suppose that she is free to her own opinion but when her thoughts have the potential to influence others opinions on a subject as delicate as this then we must reciprocate like Davis. He defends the values of art by exposing holes in Drucker’s logic. Davis explains that “Drucker overlooks...the unstable, self-sabotaging nature of this ‘complicit’ condition. In debunking the platitudes of her academic peers, Drucker underplays the crisis that the blurring of ‘high’ art and media spectacle represents, and the weird place that art finds itself as a result” (Davis 1). In other words, in these confusing and quickly changing times, we must protect the values of fine art at all costs. Davis and I are supporting an alternative idea to a merge between fine art and the “culture industry”. A contemporary “art economy” should stand up for what is right and challenge the “culture economy”. If we submit to the values of mass production than art will die, and our planet and species will follow closely behind.

The industrial revolution changed the global economy and our ideas of material and visual culture. Capitalism has brought intense competition among products, made a few people rich, and left many people poor. Advertisements are aggressive as they battle for the consumer’s ever-shortening attention span. The increase of visual stimuli over the last 50 years has affected the way that people see. The “culture industry” has increased the demand for designers and artistic minded people, which sounds good at first, but we could actually be adding to the problem. Working for a massive corporation monopoly has some benefits. But you need a pretty cold heart to knowingly contribute to everything that is wrong and unjust in our world. We must be conscious of these “cultural industry” issues and use our power, as new media artists in an otherwise free world, to evoke positive change. Artists must understand the differences between high art and the values of mass culture.

As artists we must act. The values of art (aesthetics, morality, individuality, originality, and even spirituality) can combat the false values (material possessions, status/class divisions, utility, questionably reliability, quick-fix disposable products, and shopping) of the cultural industry. Art is autonomous and makes its own rules. Art is an entity completely outside of the “cultural industry”. Art could be the kryptonite needed to take down the monstrous cultural industries. Art has survived through adversity before and must do something about these issues.
The lack of respect for the Earth has become sickening. I would like to think that most people, in the masses, would make different choices if they knew the truth of the matter and understood their position within it.

The future could go many different ways. Here are a few possible scenarios:

a. Two distinct classes emerge. One class only uses mass produced items, is generally uneducated, and has no appreciation for originality, individuality, or art. The other class will be filled with artists, well educated, and environmentally conscious people. They have amazing resiliency and create what they need with what we have. An elite society with strong values and morals. Well, at least in one of the classes.

b. The world gets on track. Technology gets to a point where the resources of the world are tracked and protected. Virtual grids are created to best optimize the sharing of resources and wealth. Equality, for the first time in human history, will include everybody. Art is seen as a divine gift and artists are seen as key members of the society. Mass production may still need to be part of the world but it will be controlled as to not exploit people and produce unneeded materials.

c. This one is not good. Art dies. Values change. The world becomes increasingly worse until it implodes. Humans de-evolve into mindless consumers and 1% of the people control the other 99%.

MADT 411 - Studio Seminar - Feb.6, 2008